Tórdis Slaughterborn
"There is but one truth in all the realms, and that truth is war. Until the fires of my vengeance gutter out and die, all shall know my fury. You see, I'm not a queen, or a monster. I'm the goddess of slaughter. What were you the god of again?" Tórdis Slaughterborn, the Wolf at World's End, the Gorequeen, the Scourge of the World, the Lady of the End Times. The Goddess of ''Slaughter, Storms and Wolves ''is a vengeful and bloody handed deity, who desires only endless battle and slaughter, caring not from whence the blood flows. She spends most of her time brooding upon a throne of thunderbolt iron and skulls. Tórdis cares not for why wars break out, where they occur, or for how long they rage. Her only concern in this matter is that people do fight, regardless of their goals. Sister to Kyvar and Albion, Tórdis remains somewhat distant from her siblings, due to their wildly disparate personalities. She and Albion in particular were often at odds with each other, due to Tórdis' philosophy of enjoying the illusion that is life, contrasted with Albion's domain of malice. Of late, the brother and sister seem to be reconciling, although how long this will last is as of yet unknown. Aspects Tórdis Vígulfr was unusual among the pantheon, as she was not one goddess with three domains, but a triple goddess, with each separate aspect that represented one facet of her power. Whether multiple personalities within one body, or three sisters, each with their own form was and will forever remain unknown, even to her own brothers, as only one aspect was ever seen at any one time. These are Úlfrikke the Wolf Queen, Kára the Lady of Rage, 'and '''Thóra Stormmaiden. '''Each aspect had noticeably differing personality and physical appearance, down to age, clothing and body language, yet all possessed the same red hair and stormcloud grey eyes. Since her acceptance of her ''wyrd and her assuming the mantle of the Wolf at World's End, nearly all traces of her former aspects have been obliterated, and only the worst of what she used to be remains. Whilst still possessing some form of martial honour, the newly re-named '''Tórdis Slaughterborn embodies the most terrible face of brutal, bloody, unrelenting war, a creature that will not stop until the worlds of Zenith and Nadir are drowned in blood and consumed by slaughter. Úlfrikke, the Wolf Queen "We are born of the blood, made great by the blood, undone by the blood. Fear the wolf blood." The most dominant of all three sisters was Úlfrikke, the Wolf Queen. Her power was the dominion of all wolves, great and small throughout the mortal realms of Zenith and Nadir, and beyond. Indeed, her whole realm was filled constantly with the sound of wolves howling in the distance, and the Wolf Queen was always accompanied by two of the largest wolves ever seen by mortal or divine eyes, as she always has been since she first appeared to the main pantheon along with her brothers. She was the undisputed alpha of all wolves in creation, with one exception. The apparent eldest of the three, Úlfrikke was the public face of Tórdis Vígulfr, and as such was the one who interacts the most with the rest of the pantheon. More reserved than either of her sisters, and possessed of a more regal bearing, Úlfrikke was neither as heavily armed and armoured as Kára, but nor was she dressed as simply as Thóra. She bore an ancient crown, an open circlet of hammered bronze surmounted by nine black iron spikes in the shape of longswords, and her cloak was fastened with a pair of snarling wolf's heads. There was one gift from Úlfrikke that was viewed with both respect and fear alike by those she granted it to. This is the Wolf Blood. At first, those gifted with the Wolf Blood gained great strength, rapid healing and preternatural senses. However, as the gift progressed, the recipient became more wolf-like in nature, gaining the ability to change into a beastly hybrid of their own race and a wolf. Those without sufficient willpower to control the change remained as blood crazed beasts, a scourge upon whatever land they came from. But by this point, the eye of the Wolf Queen had moved on, and other champions were rewarded, the cycle beginning anew. Kára, the Lady of Rage "Focus your anger. A great rage stirs within you, clawing to get out. You MUST release it. Or a puppet you'll remain." As the goddess of rage, Kára was a patron of warriors from all walks of life. It matters not were said warrior comes from, or what god he dedicates himself to, every head hewn from body, every drop of blood split, every life taken in anger was an offering to the Lady of Rage. Kára was a bloody handed destroyer who cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it does. Despite this, she maintained some form of martial honour, as only the skulls, blood and life of a worthy opponent are considered appropriate offerings. A warrior who offered up the remains of the weak and those who cannot defend themselves in her name was set upon by great packs of wolves who will hunt the offender throughout Zenith and Nadir until they have been torn apart. Kára was invariably armed and armoured for war, bearing the twin axes Górfadir and Górbarn, and clad in armour of black iron and dark bronze. She was also physically the strongest of the three, as is befitting of a goddess of war. Her eyes burned with fury, the interactions she had with the rest of the pantheon were highly confrontational, since she was always spoiling for a fight. Out of the three sisters, Kára was most feared by the mortals of both worlds, as the indiscriminate awarding of her blessings appeared at random among champions of any side of a conflict, driving them into a blood-fueled frenzy that ended only when all their foes are dead, or they are. Many times, these blessings were granted in order to prolong a conflict, so that more blood was shed for the Lady of Rage. Thóra, the Stormmaiden "I am the storm. The first storm, and the last." Thóra Stormmaiden, the child goddess of thunder. In this aspect, her moods were as changeable as the weather, quickly changing from calm to a tempest of fury. Despite her frequent mood swings, this aspect was perhaps the most friendly towards mortals, and was also the most innocent of the three, as she has dpent more time in the company of wolves than that of her fellow deities. As the apparent youngest of the three, Thóra appeared to mostly appears as a young Valkyr just past the cusp of adolescence, dressed as a shaman's apprentice, with minimal armour and weaponry compared to her sisters. She lacked the outright aggression of Kára and the regal bearing of Úlfrikke, and came across as what she usually seemed to be: an excitable, yet sometimes shy young girl. One with the power of the storm itself. Thóra's power as the Stormmaiden granted her complete control over tempests, allowing her to create a storm anywhere within the two worlds. Like the greater goddess all three sisters represented, the storms are frequently violent and destructive, laying waste to entire regions, either through hurricanes that covered entire kingdoms or rainfall that drowned a city. And yet, sometimes a storm uncovered something in its wake that allows for the renewal of the devastated region. That such a resource led to new conflict was an afterthought in the mind of the Stormmaiden, or at most a source of amusement. The Wolf at World's End "It is by my will and by my sword that your weakling nations shall fall. Blood for the Blood Goddess! Skulls for the Skull Throne! Let the world burn, let the heavens bleed!" After the craven banishment of her firstborn to Zenith, Tórdis flew into a great rage. After retreating to her hall, what emerged was something else entirely. What little innocence and good was left in her had been consumed in the fires of her hatred. Gone was the Goddess of Thunder, Rage and Wolves. In her place was the Wolf at World's End, the bloody-handed Goddess of Slaughter. The Wolf at World's End, also known as the Gorequeen, the Scourge of the World, and the Lady of the End Times, is a herald of bloodshed and war on a scale that shall consume the two realms. Vedrheim has become a realm of eternal war and bloodshed, with rivers of blood in place of water, the corpses of the slain impaled on stakes of brass throughout the realm, and the Vífulfr became bloodthirsty berzerkers instead of the hunters they once were. And at the centre of the realm, Tórdis herself sits brooding upon a throne made of the skulls of the defeated, seeking only further conquests and bloodshed. She will never be satisfied until the two worlds are nothing but endless, bloody war, with the lands soaked with blood rather than water, with only the strongest and most violent climbing to the top of the pile, before their own skulls are added to her throne. Family Tórdis is the sister of Kyvar and Albion, aunt of Hagar, and great-aunt of Lucidez and Bris. Her relations with her blood family differ wildly. She is mostly neutral towards her kin, due to a disconnect between their personality and domains. She is indifferent towards Kyvar, Lucidez and Bris. Her view of the Lord of Golems is that due to his machine nature, he lacks passion and emotion, and therefore doesn't understand life, and is content with his attention being focused on Zenith, whilst she gazes upon Nadir. She views Lucidez as not knowing who she truly is, despite the irony of Tórdis having three aspects with distinct personalities. Bris is only worthy of attention due to his domain of upheaval, which she views as being intertwined with her domain of rage. The only member of her family she outright disliked was Albion, the Thrice-Crowned. The only thing that kept her from taking up arms against her brother was his gift of blades. Her dislike of Albion stemmed from the fact that he was partly a vision of her own wyrd, what she became as Kára grew in power, and partly from his treatment of his daughter. Now she has embraced the mantle of the Wolf at World's End, her sheer hatred aligns itself well with the Thrice-Crowned's domain of Malice. The one exception to the indifference and disdain for her family was her niece, Hagar. The poor cursed child of Albion and Fallos used elicited what little compassion there was from Tórdis, as she felt that what her brother did his child was absolutely unforgivable, and was one of the two main reasons for her distaste for the Thrice-Crowned. Tórdis was careful to not expose Hagar to the fury of the Lady of Rage, and yet her compassion for her niece used to tinged with sadness, as she knows her wyrd would not allow her to remain compassionate towards the merciful child forever. This changed following the Hunt of the Ruin Beast, as she holds Hagar responsible for Arnor's death, which resulted in the enraged goddess swearing to never forgive the Queen of Monsters. Demonslayer "I am the hammer. I am the hate. I am the woes of demonkind." The Canticle of Absolution Following the defeat of the Ruin Beast, the wounds sustained by Arnor caused sixty-six demons to be born from his blood. These demons immensely powerful, and as yet, whilst the Storm's Firstborn has come close, no mortal has ever slain a demon. However, upon their birth, the demons were set upon by the Lady of Rage, and before her return to the heavens in a pillar of lightning, ten of them were slain. These ten did not return to life, causing the newly formed demonic race to have their first racial memory being that of fifteen percent of their people being butchered by a blood-soaked warrior. As a result of this, Tórdis has become, in the eyes of demonkind, to be their personification of death, as the only being to have ever permanently killed any of their kind. To them, she is a harbinger of death, destruction and woe on an unprecedented scale, their bloody-handed doom made manifest. Vedrheim, the Realm of Storm and Slaughter Tórdis Vígulfr's realm of Vedrheim was a snow-covered expanse of tundra, boreal forests, mountains and fjords. Vedrheim is constantly wracked by immense storms, with the largest storm cloud seeming to take the form of a huge wolf chasing the sun. At the center of the realm, elevated upon a rocky outcrop sits Tórdis' hall. Taking the form of a large keep of stone, with the interior lit by a great fire, this hall is where Tórdis can be found whenever not hunting or spoiling for a brawl with the rest of the pantheon. The hall was constantly filled with the sound of revelry and casual brawling, the two activities often following on from each other. As Tórdis became the Wolf at World's End, Vedrheim's mountains erupted in a storm of fire that changed the land to a blasted hellscape that bears little resemblance to it's prior appearance. Whilst storms still rage across the land, instead of snow and water, they bring only fire and lightning to a land laid to waste by the immeasurable rage of the goddess who calls this place her home. Relations and Musings upon the Pantheon As a triple goddess, the relationships Tórdis has with the rest of the pantheon vary greatly between each aspect. The following is a generalisation of her thoughts upon the deities she must share a hall with. Love (L), Friendly (F), Neutral (N), Dislike (D), Despise (D+) * Abana - (N): If you actually came down from your tree, you might learn something about sacrifice. * Albion - (N): Our children bring us closer together, brother. Perhaps we can mend the rift we had. * Arnor - (F): Farewell, old friend. May your spirit find its way to the halls of our fathers. * Bris - (N): The cycle of rage and upheaval is one built into the very weave of the world. * Canis - (D+): Take the soul of the wolf away, and what we are left with is you. Get out of my sight, mongrel. * Denen Överallt - (N): Where you roam, the storm is quick to follow. * Fallos - (F): Whatever happens, whatever the pair of us become in time, know I will always be at your side. Until hope has fully withered... * Hagar - (D+, formerly L): You truly are the mother of monsters. You are welcome in my hall no longer, "merciful" one. * Hodmier - (D+): You know nothing. Nothing about what it means to be alive. * Itheretan - (F): You understand that we should enjoy this illusion. That being said, I wonder what would happen if your slaves where filled more with rage than fear... * Kichanaro - (D+): Only a craven feels the need for the level of trickery you employ. There can be no common ground between us. * Kyvar - (N): You're nothing more than a machine, brother. No emotion, no passion, nothing but cold steel. * Lucidez - (N): You cannot know the illusion that is this world until you know yourself, and I am not convinced of the latter. * Magdalene - (D): Because of you, one of the few that I could call friend is dead. You are no goddess, only a mere parasite and a whore. * Malic - (N): You should not dismiss the burning fire of life so readily, Lord of Bones. * Mortan Husk - (D+): Rot has no place in the halls of the divine. It must be burned away. * Mudra - (N): A ladder isn't something we help others climb. A ladder is chaos, and many who try to climb it fail, and are broken by the fall. * Orlus - (?) * Scura - (F): You're a good drinking companion, but what are you hiding with your misdirections? * Veveliar - (D+): I swear upon the blade of Strídsmadur, there is now a blood fued between us. Until you return my first-born to me, all of your works will be naught but ash and ruins. Reap what you have sown, beast. * Votovo - (F): Such wonderful brews you work. I'll take another five hundred barrels. * Yllentaloh - (N): Your gems shine like captured lightning. I think I'll come and take some for my own. * Zallis - (N): Where the trails lead, the wolf hunts. And at the end, comes the kill. * Ziekten - (D+): Come out of the shadows and face me. Only a coward hides in the dark. Creations * Valkenheim * The Vífulfr * The Valkyrja * Thunderwolves * Mammoths * Áshildr, the Storm's Firstborn * Sturmdrekar * Sólbrotsjór * The Wolf Scourge * Gwynhwyfar, Princess of Stormlight * Strídsmadur Category:God/Goddess